MattPeddlesden
Kent, UK
Summary - The first 2/3 of this are wonderful, heart warming and wrenching at the same time. As this pair work against just about everyone in their lives to be able to love each other, overcoming hurdle after hurdle. It's not just the "honeymoon" phase of love, it goes longer, which was great. Then it all goes a bit wrong. The wheels massively come off this one. I lost track of what was happening and why. Ending is ok but unsatisfying on the whole.
Longer...
The FL is 10 years older than the ML. They've known each other for many years and the ML and his sister have practically been raised as siblings to the FL following their own mothers passing and their father abandoning them... so there's some taboo's to overcome when the FL and ML realise their feelings for each other have grown significantly.
This story is one of love, romance and hardship. Fairly early on the couple are getting together and the way in which they overcome that first hurdle of - who makes the first move - was really nicely done. As the relationship grows, the FL's character visibly brightens and changes, she gains confidence and literally becomes more bouncy. There are the silly childish games that couples play in the honeymoon phase along the lines of "no, you hang up first" with some cute scenes involving him dropping her off at home and them taking a long time to actually separate.
There's the FL's brother, the ML's sister, the FL's parents (who by some extension are also somewhat the ML's fake-parents), all of which are probably going to have a problem with this relationship. These are tackled one by one and I thought handled well.
The FL's mother - probably one of my most disliked characters in a story. On the one hand, she's obviously a caring mother, she goes out of her way to help and OUGHT to be a fantastic mother, but she's so controlling and interfering she becomes the clear "bad guy" in this story (that's not a spoiler, it's fairly clear early on who the problem is going to be!). She's acted well though I have to say.
In addition to what's happening in her personal life, the FL has problems at work with sexual harassment from a couple of the male senior staff. I found this whole aspect of the story really hard to watch, but more because it was portrayed well and therefore all the more shameful - not so much about the actual act of harassing but all the scheming and tactics to try and dodge it, cover it up, pass over the blame etc. Ultimately the story kinda builds to a conclusion on this and then SKIPS it however so you actually only find out what ultimately happened via a reminiscence later on, a huge shame.
None of the sound track really stood out for me, it does all seem to be English lyrics which was interesting. One of the songs is a remake of Stand By Your Man - which plays sooo many times - but I found it appropriate if only because this story is clearly - Stand By Your Woman. The FL is going through so many challenges at home and at work, she's a flawed character who makes mistakes on top, and what she needs most (and, for the most part, what she gets from the ML) is support.
So, was it worth watching?
I'd recommend watching this one because of the first 2/3 being SO good, it goes beyond the ridiculously cute honeymoon phase to further in where things become more normal, to where they upset each other, decisions are made and things happen, there's the happenings with the family and with the ML's sister. There's really only two threads (their relationship and the harassment story line) but they are both quite involved.
This is not a story where good people make only good decisions, be prepared to throw popcorn at the screen and shout "just be honest!" "argh no don't do that you fool!" - but that's ok because in the real world, people are flawed too.
The wheels do come off later, the time skip is unannounced and utterly confusing and contributes a lot to the problems in following the story in the last few episodes. The harassment story line is done a huge disservice by not having its conclusion covered properly too.
Longer...
The FL is 10 years older than the ML. They've known each other for many years and the ML and his sister have practically been raised as siblings to the FL following their own mothers passing and their father abandoning them... so there's some taboo's to overcome when the FL and ML realise their feelings for each other have grown significantly.
This story is one of love, romance and hardship. Fairly early on the couple are getting together and the way in which they overcome that first hurdle of - who makes the first move - was really nicely done. As the relationship grows, the FL's character visibly brightens and changes, she gains confidence and literally becomes more bouncy. There are the silly childish games that couples play in the honeymoon phase along the lines of "no, you hang up first" with some cute scenes involving him dropping her off at home and them taking a long time to actually separate.
There's the FL's brother, the ML's sister, the FL's parents (who by some extension are also somewhat the ML's fake-parents), all of which are probably going to have a problem with this relationship. These are tackled one by one and I thought handled well.
The FL's mother - probably one of my most disliked characters in a story. On the one hand, she's obviously a caring mother, she goes out of her way to help and OUGHT to be a fantastic mother, but she's so controlling and interfering she becomes the clear "bad guy" in this story (that's not a spoiler, it's fairly clear early on who the problem is going to be!). She's acted well though I have to say.
In addition to what's happening in her personal life, the FL has problems at work with sexual harassment from a couple of the male senior staff. I found this whole aspect of the story really hard to watch, but more because it was portrayed well and therefore all the more shameful - not so much about the actual act of harassing but all the scheming and tactics to try and dodge it, cover it up, pass over the blame etc. Ultimately the story kinda builds to a conclusion on this and then SKIPS it however so you actually only find out what ultimately happened via a reminiscence later on, a huge shame.
None of the sound track really stood out for me, it does all seem to be English lyrics which was interesting. One of the songs is a remake of Stand By Your Man - which plays sooo many times - but I found it appropriate if only because this story is clearly - Stand By Your Woman. The FL is going through so many challenges at home and at work, she's a flawed character who makes mistakes on top, and what she needs most (and, for the most part, what she gets from the ML) is support.
So, was it worth watching?
I'd recommend watching this one because of the first 2/3 being SO good, it goes beyond the ridiculously cute honeymoon phase to further in where things become more normal, to where they upset each other, decisions are made and things happen, there's the happenings with the family and with the ML's sister. There's really only two threads (their relationship and the harassment story line) but they are both quite involved.
This is not a story where good people make only good decisions, be prepared to throw popcorn at the screen and shout "just be honest!" "argh no don't do that you fool!" - but that's ok because in the real world, people are flawed too.
The wheels do come off later, the time skip is unannounced and utterly confusing and contributes a lot to the problems in following the story in the last few episodes. The harassment story line is done a huge disservice by not having its conclusion covered properly too.
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